I have an HP Compaq 2510p laptop running ubuntu 12.04 LTS. ubuntu reports that wireless is disabled by means of a hardware switch. There is a 'soft-key' button on the laptop to control the physical wireless hardware but this does not respond. There is no other button, slider, (fn)+ combination to control the physical wireless hardware. There is no BIOS function to disable wireless (and on XP - previous OS - wireless functioned fine).

mike@ubuntu:~$ rfkill list all
0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: yes
1: hp-wifi: Wireless LAN
    Soft blocked: no
    Hard blocked: no

Running rfkill unblock all doesn't change things and I can see no way to change use from 0: to 1: (if that's even possible - or desirable - in the first place).

I have checked for additional drivers and the Broadcom proprietary wireless driver is already installed and has a green light.

Essentially, I believe I need to make the HP 'soft-keys' work - or at least the wireless card toggle.

Advice gratefully received.

Cheers

M